Aggression trip-switch?

[lordtariel]

There's no real blanket answer for this. MA does increase your confidence, decisiveness, and self respect. It could be that being accused of "being aggressive" meant that they were just standing up for themselves against someone who was used to getting their way. That being said, there are some real ego cases out there in the MA world. Unfortunately, some of them teach, so students are bound to pick up some of it.

[gzk]

Some people are arrogant and disrespectful but lacking in the physical tools to back it up if they were to display these qualities openly in certain contexts; passive-aggressiveness is one potential sign of that. Teaching martial arts to people like that can be dangerous. Then again, some people are passive-aggressive to compensate for lack of confidence that martial arts would give them.

One idea that occurred to me when I started training is that you never really know if anyone out in the general public might be trained or not, which should be a deterrent to anyone thinking that they're going to go out and kill people after 6 months of training; that nerdy looking guy out in the street may actually be capable of breaking you six ways.

The only way to really deal with that (I think) is to pay very close attention to new students (well, everyone, but newbies in particular). Do they try to grind smaller guys into the mat? Do they give submissions an extra crank after the tap? Do they continually kick the legs of someone clearly hobbling? When drilling a new technique do they continually prevent others from developing the confidence to invest in the technique? People like that need to be set straight or kicked out.

My instructor tells us his preferred method of dealing with bullies identified at this stage is to ask them to hang around for the next class (Advanced BJJ - with a good cross-section of blues through blacks) where their cheap shots will earn them continual tap-outs. Unfortunately, that sometimes results in people who only respect those whose belt indicates that they can beat them up; the only thing you can really do is kick those people out and hope that you can trust the integrity of all the other instructors in the region to do the same if their attitude doesn't change.

[Existence_is _suffering]

There's no real blanket answer for this. MA does increase your confidence, decisiveness, and self respect. It could be that being accused of "being aggressive" meant that they were just standing up for themselves against someone who was used to getting their way. That being said, there are some real ego cases out there in the MA world. Unfortunately, some of them teach, so students are bound to pick up some of it.

I totally agree with you! A little story: A guy I knew has been bullied for nearly two years by this one (older) boy. He's been practising TKD for nearly a year Last week the bully started getting in his face and pushing him, so he punched him in the throat. It wasn't a "lost-control" punch either and as soon as he went to the ground the guy walked away. Now his parents have pulled him out of TKD and he's suspended from school for two-months (they initailly discussed expelling him..)

Now, to answer your question. I don't believe martial arts has anything to do with making a person aggressive. As lordtariel pointed out, when a person stands up for themselves they can be labelled "aggressive", and while I know that there are some real ego-jobs in the martial arts, from what i've seen they're usually aggressive before beginning martial arts and usually start training because they like the "tough" factor or to learn how to beat the crap out of someone (who is usually smaller than them).

[Montana]

You need to take into account your behavior and attitude prior to taking the martial arts. If you're an aggressive, abusive individual prior to joining the arts, then it's possible they may become more aggressive and abusive. But I also believe a lot of it has to do with the instructor and the art itself, that you can go either direction. Become more aggressive, or more mellow.

An example in my area is a San Soo class taught by an 8-9h Dan instructor. He teaches pure aggression to his students and encourages them to get into fights to test their skills and techniques. Pure rubbish if you ask me.

Another instructor locally teaches aikido. He is just the opposite.

[bushido_man96]

An example in my area is a San Soo class taught by an 8-9h Dan instructor. He teaches pure aggression to his students and encourages them to get into fights to test their skills and techniques. Pure rubbish if you ask me.

That is nuts. I am surprised that guys like that don't get cracked down on more. There is no way I could feel good about telling my own students to do that.